The North Face Venture is a budget rain shell similar to the Best Buy award winning Marmot PreCip and the Patagonia Torrentshell. The Venture doesn't breathe as well, but has pit zips and mesh-lined pockets to add ventilation. This is a great first rain jacket for folks who will get out on occasional hiking or biking trips, but mostly need a rain jacket for around-town use.

The Columbia Watertight II, a two-layer jacket that won our Top Pick for Around-Town Use is ideal for cool weather around-town wear and the Venture for warm weather around town wear.

OutdoorGearLab Editors' Hands-on Review

The North Face Venture was an average performer in most of our metrics. It's a reasonable entry-level 2.5-layer jacket, offers good ventilation options, and stuffs into its hand pocket.

Performance Comparison

This is the most affordable 2.5-layer model we tested. It does everything think ok, but didn't score high in any of our test metrics. Here, you can see the relatively short waist hem length.

Credit: Brandon Lampley

Water Resistance

This rain jacket did a good job keeping us dry. There's nothing special about the hood - it doesn't have a stiffened brim, but the elastic around the face and at the back of the hood allow lots of adjustment. This is the only jacket that let us get a little wet in the shower; a bit of water seeped into the hand pockets. The DWR treatment on the fabric beaded water well and kept up through our tests.

Breathability

We found that the proprietary HyVent 2.5-layer coating used for this rain jacket was not as breathable as other fabrics. What The North Face Venture does bring to the table is a good set of ventilation features for a budget rain jacket. Relatively large pit zips provide good air exchange and the hand pockets are lined with mesh, making for two more vents when open.

Comfort and Mobility

This model is something of a mixed bag here. The hood fits reasonably well, and a microfleece patch is comfy on the chin. The zipper pulls are easy enough to use, but the cord locks for hood and hem adjustment are small. Overall, these features are not the easiest to operate with gloves on. This jacket moves with you pretty well, but its waist hem is shorter than most and can leave you exposed with arms overhead.

The Venture is a great just in case jacket. Here we've layered it over an insulated jacket for a short hike to a favorite lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Credit: Brandon Lampley

Weight

Our size large test model weighed in at 11.6 ounces, practically the same as the similar PreCip and Torrentshell.

Durability

This jacket's 40D ripstop nylon should stand up to some wear and tear, and it earned a middle of the pack durability score. We feel the Patagonia Torrentshell is the most durable of the similar models we tested.

Packed Size

This model stuffs into its left hand pocket and features a clip-in loop when stuffed.

Another of the jackets that doesn't compress very small. Like others, this does make the job of stuffing it into its pocket easy.

Credit: Brandon Lampley

Features

This rain jacket has a nice hood with a medium-sized brim and two elastic cinch cords. The cord locks are external on the sides and at the rear of the hood. The cord that runs across the brow goes through a unique sleeve that creates a little comfy airspace above it. There's a comfy micro fleece chin flap and a hang loop at the back of the collar. The North Face Venture has pit zips with strings on the zipper pull tabs. Storm flaps cover the zippers. It also has large mesh-lined hand pockets that add even more ventilation. The jacket stuffs into the left front pocket. The wrist cuffs tighten down with a Velcro tab. The elastic hem cinch has cord locks on both hips.

This model has a small hand loop at the pack of the collar, relatively large pitzips, and simple cuffs that close with a Velcro tab.

Credit: Brandon Lampley

Best Applications

This is an entry-level 2.5-layer shell. It will keep you dry around town, and even though the breathability isn't quite there, the ventilation features extend it's usefulness to light hiking and backpacking.

Value

At $99, this is the least expensive 2.5-layer rain jacket we tested. For the truly budget conscious, it will get the job done. But the added performance and small details of the award winning Marmot Precip and the climbing specific Patagonia Torrenshell are a better value for most.

Conclusion

The most affordable 2.5-layer shell we tested, The North Face Venture is a good entry-level shell for the occasional hiker.

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OutdoorGearLab Member Reviews

Most recent review: November 12, 2014

Summary of All Ratings

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